Pakistan flood 2022

The risk of floods has increased in South Asia due to high vulnerability and exposure. The August 2022 Pakistan flood shows a glimpse of the enormity and devastation that can further rise under the warming climate. The deluge caused by the Pakistan floods in 2022, which badly hit the country's southern provinces, is incomparable to any recent events in terms of the vast spatial and temporal scale. The 2022 Pakistan flood ranked third in human mortality, while this was the top event that displaced about 32 million people. Using observations and climate projections, we examine the causes and implications of the August 2022 flood inPakistan. Multiday (~ 15 days) extreme precipitation on wet antecedent soil moistureconditions was the primary driver of the flood in August 2022. The extreme precipitation inAugust was caused by two atmospheric rivers that passed over southern Pakistan. Streamflowsimulations from the multiple hydrological models show that extreme precipitation was theprimary driver of floods as several stations in the flood-affected regions experiencedanomalously higher flow than the stations located upstream. The frequency of similar multi-day extreme precipitation events is projected to rise four-fold under the high emissionscenario. The 2022 Pakistan flood highlights the adapatation challenges that South Asia isfacing along with the substantial need for climate mitigation to reduce the risk of such eventsin the future.